Zero Hour Pics

The developers of the game "Gears of War" demo'd a couple of the levels from the game. It looks to be the best looking 360 game so far but will not be out until March 2006.

Zero Hour Pics

Me playing one of the new games 'Condemned'. Pretty sweet, but also very dark - almost like a CSI meets Seven.

More Zero Hour Pics

Here is the inside of the hangar where the Xbox's were set up in different stations.

XBOX 360 Zero Hour Pt. 1

After almost a 10 hour drive we arrived in Palmdale, CA - Lockheed site of the Xbox 360 Zero Hour launch event. There were a lot of people there and it was cold outside. Here are some of the pictures that I took:

F.E.A.R. & Battlefield 2

Instead of my ritualistic weekend of playing World of Warcraft till the wee hours of the morning, I decided to download 2 games that are soon coming out. F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Response Recon) and Battlefield 2. After playing World of Warcraft for almost 4 months it's hard to find a game that holds my attention as much as WoW has. That said I was pleasantly surprised to discover that both of these games were actually fun. I did not play either for a very long period of time but first reaction was good. Battlefield 2 does everything that 1942 and Vietnam titles did and more. The graphics were great and the gameplay was better. You've got to have more than just graphics to impress me and Battlefield 2's gameplay was awesome. My video card could not handle playing at high settings (5900FX) but at the medium settings it still looked great and played well. F.E.A.R. was a completely different feel than Battlefield. It is pure mayhem. My video card just plain sucked at high settings, and barely worked at medium. I had to play the game at 800x60032bit - which, by the way, I am embarrassed to admit. The game is a FP shooter but unlike Battlefield 2 which involves strategy and planning this game is a lightning fast fragfest. I can't count the number of times I died - I thought I was pretty good at FPS games, I have a pretty quick reflexes, but these guys I played against just totally wasted me. I can't imagine how good this game looks on a newer video card, but it's got to look good. Made me wish I had $500 lying around, but then again if I did would I really spend it on a video card? Probably not. Anyway I digress - my initial thoughts on Battlefield 2 are that I will be getting it when it comes out. Will I be buying F.E.A.R.? Possibly. That's all for now. PEACE!

Yesterday's Softball game

Well another softball night has come and gone. We won again but it was a close one, finishing up with an 18-12 win. It seemed like a lot of us were off our game - myself especially. I had 2 errors last night, I dropped a high ball that was hit out to me in right-center and let a ball go over my head. I also hit horribly. I try to just tap the ball and it ends up going all the way out to the outfielders. About halfway through the game I hit one between second and short and took off for first base. As I was nearing first base I suddenly felt a pop behind my right leg and then pain. I had pulled my hamstring AGAIN. This time it was much higher than right behind the knee. I ended up having to play out the rest of the game because of how we were doing substitutions. Today it hurts like mutha - going to be icing it all weekend to prepare for next week's game against the team we are tied with for first.

Mail-in Rebates: the new scam

MIR's (Mail-in Rebate) are a such a joke. It appears that companies outsource their MIR's to other company's who specialize in scrutinizing your rebate submission and finding any error they can to void your rebate. One such example: I bought a phone with a $100 MIR from T-Mobile last August. The kid in the store assured me that the phone was covered by the rebate. So I bought the phone and sent in the rebate the following day. About 2 months later I get a letter in the mail telling me that my rebate submission was declined and that my phone was not covered in the rebate. I called the number on the letter and spoke with a CSR who realized that my phone was indeed covered in the rebate and she resubmitted my form. I thought everything was ok, I was very wrong. I received the exact same letter the next month - I went through the process of calling and speaking with another CSR who came to the same conclusion as the first one and ended up resubmitting the rebate. The next month I received yet another letter exactly the same as the first and second. This happened each consecutive month until finally the rebate had expired. The last time (which turned out to be about 8 months later) I was told that the rebate was no longer existing and that I was out of luck. So I called T-Mobile up and ripped the CSR who spoke to me a new one. He told me that there was nothing he could do about the rebate because they were handled by an 'outside' company. I told him "well it looks like they did their job then because they successfully screwed me over on my rebate". He told me he didn't know what I was talking about, but I know he did. We finally came to the conclusion that T-Mobile would credit my account $100. That was 2 months ago and I'm still waiting to see that credit take place... In short, don't trust the MIR's.

Here's a basic picture of the case I got - I'll post a pic of my own hopefully tonight or tomorrow.

Just A Little Itch

So I got prescribed some amoxycillin for my root canal so that nothing gets infected. Last night around 10:00 I decided to take my first one. I go downstairs and settle into my chair to get a little WoW in. About an hour later I notice that I'm scratching my neck - no big deal just a little itch. About 30 minutes after that I'm scratching my hands and fingers. Now I start to think something is up. I stand up and I feel a little dizzy and there's a ring in my ears. So I rub my ears and notice they feel slightly warm. It was about 11:30 maybe 12 so I logout of WoW and head upstairs to tell Angela that my ears are warm and my fingers are super itchy. I get up there and she takes one look at me and says "OH MY GOSH!". I go look in the mirror and my neck is bright red and puffy from my ears to my chest. I go back out into the front room and sit down and then it set in like wildfire. I started scratching all over the place and just puffed up everywhere that I touched. I immediately assume that it's the amox. that's doing it. I was allergic to penicillin when I was a kid but I thought I was over that - guess not! I tried to lay down and go to sleep and not think about the itch but it was impossible. I scratched and scratched until it hurt and then I scratched some more. It didn't go away until about 2:30 in the morning, and that's when I finally got to sleep. Worst night I've had in a long time.

TOOF!

Well over the weekend I had a bad experience with my teeth. I grind my teeth in my sleep. It's so bad that my top front 4 teeth have been ground down to almost nothing. They are so thin you can almost see through them. Anyway Friday night we were eating with Utah's finest at Golden Corral. I figure it's not that bad - there's steak and mashed potatoe's so I'm good. Well while in line waiting for a steak I see some sauteed mushrooms calling my name. So I grab a couple. I get back to my seat and proceed to dig in. Everything is tasting pretty good until I pop a mushroom in my mouth. CRUNCH. Hmm, a little dirt that didn't get washed off - oh well just keep chewing and swallow and don't think about it. CRACK........ I felt something at the front of my mouth behind my top teeth that didn't feel right. I put my finger in there to see what happened. YOOOOWCH!!!!! My tooth had chipped and my root was sticking out. That hurt really bad so I probe it with the tip of my tongue. ZZZZAP! Again the pain shot through me like I had just been electrocuted. My jaw dropped and my face went pale. I couldn't believe my teeth had finally chipped. The dentist had warned me about this time and time again and it finally happened. Needless to say I couldn't eat very well after that. The soonest I could get in to the dentist was Monday morning - but at least the dentist was able to call in a Rx for some Lortabs. Those things saved me over the weekend because it hurt to just breathe. Monday I went in and got my root canal (nitrous is lovely) and now I'm feeling a lot better.

Cell phone pic of the day: My messy cubicle.

So my hard drive decided to give up the ghost the other day. That was really bad timing as I had just bought a hard drive only 2 or 3 months ago. Anyway I bought a replacement - 250GB Serial ATA with 16MB Cache buffer... SWEET. The transfer speeds are amazing and going from an 80GB to a 250GB made it even sweeter. I also got a new case for my PC - a Thermaltake Tsunami. I'll post pics of it when I finally get around to charging the batteries in my camera.

The Holdens are here

Shane, Dore, and kids have come to visit for a couple weeks. They are going to be joined by Shane's dad and his GF and will be going on a snowmobile expedition. It should be fun and hopefully they will take some good pictures to show us when they come back.

SpongeWho SquareWhat?!?!?!Ok, so my 1 and a half year old girl is obsessed with this cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. I believe this developed over at her aunt's house. Everytime she hears that song start up she runs as fast as she can to the tv and proceeds to sing along "bobbob bobbob" (since she cant quite pronounce sponge). I don't know really know why she likes this show so much. It could be the colorful characters. It could be the annoying voices. Who knows? Who cares? All I know is she's mesmerized by it. So as long as she's not running around destroying everything in sight I will tolerate Mr. Squarepants.

Another WoW picture taken in Redridge.

So I've been addicted to the game 'World of Warcraft'. I think I have logged about 30 hours in just under a week. That's a lot of late nights and tired mornings. I'm on the Terenas server and my char's name is Ikaika - look me up if you are ever on...

koa and pele

Pic of the day: